Inter assistant coach Massimiliano Farris has said that Inter are the masters of their own destiny when they face Liverpool next week in the Champions League, according to a report in the Italian broadcast media.
Speaking after the 5-0 win over Salernitana to Sky Sport, via FCInternews, the Italian coach looked ahead to the Champions League tie with Liverpool where Inter must overturn the 2-0 defeat from the first leg.
“It will not be easy to overturn the result but we want the performance. Some games are motivated by themselves: we go to Anfield, we play in the Champions League; we start at a disadvantage but we want an Inter performance.
“We played well in the first leg. We will put on the field the best possible formation to put in a good performance. What we have said recently with the club is that we are the only ones who can decide our destiny.”
Inter broke out of their bad recent form against Salernitana by scoring five goals and taking all three points. Massimiliano Farris expected this performance because the data showed there was no physical decline in the team.
“Yes, because obviously in this moment of slight physiological decline due to how we played in the first part of the season and the number of matches brought together by emotional stress even before the physical one we expected this.
“Salernitana had a courageous attitude as we had learned, the preparation was done in the attack and with the use of the winger. The team did everything right. Seeing Lautaro and Dzeko rejoice was the best we could expect.”
The assistant coach also said that because of the fixture schedule, they were not able to train with the players much on the pitch so had to focus on mental training.
“With so many close matches, going on the pitch and training was the thing we were able to do the least. We worked psychologically, we told the guys that fatigue was in the head.
“We had no data that showed a physical decline, we never had any doubts on the qualities of Lautaro or Barella. We put our trust in the strength of the group. Today the Inter we knew is back.”
Massimiliano Farris also discussed the tactical tweak during the game that involved Hakan Calhanoglu and Nicolo Barella.
“Those changes of position were due to the performances and the match. We always analyse and we realized that this team needs to play freely. In the last two games we have distorted ourselves, in Genoa we tried to play vertically more quickly but the field did not allow us to play our game.
“And against Milan the impact of the opponent and our not so great calmness prevented us from playing our classic game. Today we brought back our strength to midfield in controlling the ball and in the mobility of Brozovic, Barella and Calhanoglu.”
Massimiliano Farris also talked about how the team utilised the fact that Marcelo Brozovic always gets marked very closely by opposition players.
“Marcelo always has a man on him, everyone is doing it. He is someone who wants to dribble, to support his teammates. He shows up when the team gives him support, today him being in the middle has meant that the spaces for attacks could be opened.”
